Final preparations for the upcoming exhibition What is Luxury? are in full swing now as we rapidly approach the start of the exhibition build. Here’s a sneak peek behind the scenes at some of the activities the team has been involved in over the past couple of months.
Graphics
Title signage is the first thing a visitor sees upon entering an exhibition, and therefore it has to immediately convey the exhibition’s identity. Exhibition designers work hard to ensure that their concept will be executed accurately – developing and testing the title signage for What is Luxury? was particularly crucial due to its kinetic quality. Here designers Clara Sancho and David Jode review drawings, maquettes and prototypes that have been created to test the balance and movement of the signage.
Condition Checking and Display Requirements
Most loans arrive at the museum a month in advance of installation, however certain objects require an earlier arrival for conservation and mounting assessments. Here conservator Louise Egan condition checks the Talaris saddle, crafted by Hermès, upon its delivery to the museum. The saddle has been a regular subject at installation meetings to determine the most effective mounting method within the case so that visitors are able to view the unique ‘tree’ core structure, engineered from carbon fibre, thermoplastic and titanium. A sketch below by 3D designer David Jode demonstrates this research process.
Exhibition Design
Wall colours can dramatically transform the mood and style of an exhibition. Colours are reviewed throughout the design development process, taking into account the exterior gallery, interior build, showcase design, graphics, lighting, and objects to be presented. A colour scheme must be selected in advance of the build, requiring the designer to make an important decision based on a palette of small samples. Here, the Luxury team escorted the colour sample board to view it in the Porter Gallery where Disobedient Objects was still on view and the lighting environment would more closely resemble the conditions of the exhibition.
Object Display
For Philippe Malouin’s spirographic sand installation Time Elapsed, the Luxury team has spent many months planning various aspects of its installation here at the V&A. One consideration was the type of sand that would be used – taking into account the selected fabric for the plinth, humidity in the gallery, and how the sand will dispense through the work. After various investigations, the artists selected two types of sand (actually soda-lime glass beads) that will be tested during object installation in the Porter Gallery. A picture of the testing in progress below!
Framing and Mounting
Many months of planning go into the seamless and often near-invisible mounts that ensure objects look their best when on exhibition. In this instance, the Technical Services department needed to create frames to display a series of unique spoons created by artist Simone ten Hompel. Below is an in-progress shot of the newly constructed frames made by mountmaker John Dowling, with the team testing layout before the frames were welded together and spray painted.
Hi I worked in the insulation team for 24years at the v&a I was surprised that they have a installation team to this day as we were all made redundant and we were told that all services would be out sourced the work sounds exactly the same we was told that our services was no longer required we argued that the v&a would require skilled technicians it seems we was proved right